A Nifty Pinterest Find For The Ipad or Iphone User

I was happy to get on my blogger dashboard this morning or afternoon, and see that things have come back to normal. I hated that one blog at a time and not even being able to click view more and see other posts. I panicked. I read forums and seen suggestions on how to fix it and when those all failed I went and opened up a bloglovin. I of course have no followers but myself. If you would follow me there. I would be ever so grateful and of course return the favor. My Bloglovin' Also while I am asking for follows for things you will see in my sidebar my blog facebook page. Please like it also. The more likes the more I can accepted for product reviews on Tomoson. 

I ran across a pin on pinterest in my late night browsing. If you consider 10p.m. late. I thought it was quite interesting. 

Get to the Pin

I am new to the ipad world. So I am confused on how to use a lot of things on it. I am of course a loyal Android OS user. Have been for years and getting my hands on an ipad, I am totally lost. But the thing is my sons so I have to do something on it. 
I have not been able to go through the entire list but have tried two of the things and they have worked. Well mostly. 
1. Make it more comfortable to type in thumb mode. This is awesome because have you ever tried to type on an ipad like you do on a phone. I tried and it is frustrating and I have a lot of errors. 
The first part says to swipe two fingers across the keyboard. For some reason that did not work for me. I had to do the second option. I had to press the dock and merge button on the bottom right hand corner of the keyboard and there I was. I was in thumb mode! 

Then I have skipped down to number 6. Take a selfie using earbuds. If you have earbuds that is compatible with iphone or ipad and it has a remote to control volume on them you can take a selfie. All you have to do is get in the camera mode with the buds plugged in and click. There you have a selfie with no arms. I had to test it. I am not posting the picture of myself doing it. I was making a goofy face lol. 

 Showing Eric how it works. Love his face
The ipad does not seem to take very good pictures..

Showing the oldest son how it works (Sean) his face makes me laugh too. 

I have not tried the rest of the stuff on the list. If you have what has worked for you or did you already know it? Feel free to follow me on pinterest and pin the pin yourself. Have some fun with some selfies. 


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Happy Home-Maker Monday 6/23/14

This weekend marked the official beginning of Summer. So far this summer has actually been mild for Arkansas in June. It is usually so hot its unbearable but we have barely even seen 90 degree temps. We spent all weekend in the pool! What a way to celebrate the beginning of summer. Even though I had no idea it was the official start until I seen another bloggers post about it. Thank you for the reminder. 

It is another Monday so therefore another Happy Home Maker hosted by Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. You can catch her blog HERE

Now onto it we go! 
As I look outside my window I do not see much lol. I am actually sitting in my bedroom and the window is blacked out. But I have been outside today and it is an overcast day and the weather is calling for a slight chance of rain. 
Right now I am typing up this post(that is a given) eating on some Vienna Sausages and cheddar cheese. I am not really hungry I just have to make sure that I do eat. After all I am now carrying precious cargo! I am also chatting on facebook and venting about my problem causing mother in law. Or might as well be my mother in law. She is not legally. 
Thinking and Pondering on whether or not I should write a letter to someone who needs to hear a few things. I do not know if it would make it worse or better or just be ignored. I guess it is worth a try. 
On my bedside table is my pepsi, the only one of the day. 
On my t.v. this week is nothing really I guess. Eric(my s/o) always has control over the t.v. so its always Big Bang Theory on every night at 6. After that its left up in the air. I know last night he watched Halt and Catch Fire. I think Wednesday is Duck Dynasty. I am also busy with my son in therapy until around 7:30 every night. Not much t.v. watching for me. 
I am listening to my kids friend. He has been here since Saturday and I do not think the boy shuts up...Ever!
On the menu for this week, hamburger and chicken. What goes along with we are yet to figure that one out. 
On my to do list..I have an appointment Friday, clean house, laundry..The normal I guess. I need to find a project to work on. Maybe concentrate on my blog and stuff like I said I would do a couple of weeks ago and have failed. 
Happening this week is an ultrasound of the baby Friday to make sure everything is on track. I will be a little over 6 weeks. I am hoping for good news.
I am creating nothing so far besides a life.
Looking around the house I see boys on the x-box..Thats it. My dogs are hiding in the bedroom with me lol. Got to love my girls. The only ones in the house besides myself.
From the camera these are taken over the weekend. My baby boy loves the swimming pool. 

How did ya'll bring in the summer?


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The Difference Between Memorial Day and Veterans Day

One of the blog topics I have had written down but seem to never have gotten around to posting. Does this happen to anyone else?Anyway I mean to post about our Memorial Day weekend and such. I have seen so many people confusing Memorial Day with Veterans Day. There is a difference! Big difference people. To make it short and sweet Memorial Day is to recognize fallen soldiers who lost their lives protecting our freedom. Veterans Day is a day to give thanks and recognize all soldiers. Anyways that was big pet peeve of mine this year because I seen so many signs saying Happy Memorial Day, thank you to all serving. In my opinion that should be for Veterans Day not Memorial Day. 

Directly from the site http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetday_faq.asp

Q. What is the difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day?

A. Many people confuse Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Memorial Day is a day for remembering and honoring military personnel who died in the service of their country, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle. While those who died are also remembered, Veterans Day is the day set aside to thank and honor ALL those who served honorably in the military - in wartime or peacetime. In fact, Veterans Day is largely intended to thank LIVING veterans for their service, to acknowledge that their contributions to our national security are appreciated, and to underscore the fact that all those who served - not only those who died - have sacrificed and done their duty.

Moving on from my rant...We spent the morning at a ceremony for Memorial Day. My step son is part of the community band so he got to play at this event. Yes we are proud of him. He has played only in two community events so far. They do not seem to have a big need for a community band in this area. Anyways I wanted to share some pictures that my significant other and myself captured on this Memorial Day morning. 

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The Good, The Random and the Fun 6-16-2014

The Good

Oh yes it has happened. 

The Random
I have been complaining a lot lately about my plants dying due to all the rain. I uprooted a few and put them in buckets since the ground they were in had poor drainage. After awhile of me being disappointed and me giving them some care I think they will make it after all!!

The Fun

One of his favorite things to do :-)

Link up HERE

ABA Success after 4 Months

What is ABA you ask? It is Applied Behavioral Analysis. I will go into more detail on a later post. If you can not wait that long then go ahead and check out THIS SITE.
Logan had been accept into the Autism Waiver Program back in October of last year and it took them until February to hire people to come out to our house. In this field of therapy there is your line therapist, lead therapist and a consultant as well as a program coordinator. To make a long story short, things were not being done correctly at all. I finally made enough complaints that the program coordinator came out to our home and seen what a mess things were and how everyone was not following the proper guidelines. They were training my son wrongly. He would get bored and frustrated. Especially since he had to repeat a task 40 times in one day and he had 6 different tasks to work on. He can only "sort" so many times without losing his temper. Now Logan only has to do the "sort" task 10 times in four hours as well as the others tasks. They are pretty simple right now. It consists of imitation, pulling up his pants and working on sign language. 
Logans consultant had not ordered much of anything as learning tools. Logans ABA supplies were very very lacking and ineffective. Within the last week Logan has gotten a new lead therapist and a new consultant. The line therapist showed up today with an armful of things. Logans face lit up with all the new goodies to play with. Only problem, he found it hard to concentrate at the tasks because he wanted to play with the new toys! His reinforcement for completing his tasks was to be able to check out these new pretties. His favorite toy today to work for was the Handy Manny tool box.

Order Here

Next on the list of supplies that were brought today was Melissa & Dougs Rainbow Caterpillar. This particular toy will help develop gross motor skills. Logan has this bagged and passed. Even though it is easy for him he loves to play with it either way. It spins and anyone who has an autistic child knows that they love to spin things. That is a classic sign of autism. 

Order Here

My son is not the violent or destructive autistic child. In fact he loves to cuddle. Of course that would be on his terms but he has never "hit" a thing unless told do so. Even then it is iffy if he would even do it then. His line therapist brought in the whacky ball toy. Once he figured out how to hit the ball he enjoyed it. This toy was used in his functional play time. Functional play time is where we all play and show Logan how to play with a toy properly. He even played with it after the therapist left. 

Order Here

I felt very confident in todays therapy session. Instead of Logan getting bored or frustrated, he had fun. The way it should be. He even learned two new signs which are cookie and milk. He even learned how to pull up his pants. He still can not get the shorts over his bottom but he mostly gets it. Tomorrow will be even more fun. More supplies coming, meeting the new lead therapist and seeing what other tasks we can work on as well as learning what the parents goals will be. 

Logan did have a hard time focusing on the tasks but I play that off to the fact he has not had a therapy session since his surgery which was May 20th. He has to get in the swing of things again and get used to the new way of doing things. He was also distracted by all the new toys. 

Parents if your children are in therapies or anything else and you just have this gut feeling its not going the way it should, go with it! Research it and get things on the right track. I am excited about seeing Logans progress now. I think it is time for him to soar!!

Wordless Wednesday 6-11-14

Baby Book Milestones

You all know that special baby book you get for your newborn or the one not born yet? You excitedly can not wait to get your hands on it and start filling it out. I have done this with each one of my 3 children. My oldest had a winnie the pooh baby book. My middle child I did a scrapbook. Did everything on my own and had a very enjoyable time doing to. I loved recording all their firsts. 

I got my sons before he was born. I found it at a truck load sale. Not a very special one but special enough for me. I was excited about getting started. To begin with you have a section all about mom and dad. You should see my side compared to his dads side. Then you have a section to write about our parents .                Mine

His

Oh well I can get over that just fine. It's filling in the milestones that start to get me a little down. I am sure I am not the only autistic parent that may feel this way. We still have blanks in there and Logan is 3. He has yet to hold his own spoon, go to potty, stop wearing diapers, sang a song, first animal sound, first word and favorite playmates. What can I do though? I will not sit here and feel sorry for myself or him. My son and I are working very hard on trying to get all these milestones met. It may be later than most but he is more special than most. Maybe I am just bias. He may not be able to speak a single word but there are many other things he can do that children who can speak can not do.  Those are the things we shall focus on. 

As I was typing up this blog I realized something. The front cover of this baby book is of noah's ark My grandmother passed away back in March. It was not an easy passing for me to handle. My Grandmother loved Logan. She would be so proud of how intelligent he is. I was going through her belongings after she passed and found a noah's ark she had constructed by hand. I feel a connection. I told you at the beginning, that this baby book was nothing really special and I could have bought a much more nice one at the store or something but I seen it at a truckload sale and just had to get it. I feel there is something there but maybe I am crazy. But I can believe and it makes my heart feel better. 

Us autism parents, those milestones feel like a huge thing to us. It does hurt our hearts when we see that our children are behind but we also see our children excel in other ways. We are happy for every single progression they make. Love to you all and stay strong! 

Its Okay :-(

This past weekend and yesterday was filled with nothing but rain. My yard has no drainage what so ever so all the vegetables I planted have drowned. 

Its okay I can be bummed about it.

Its okay that I always wait until the last minute to get ready to go somewhere because I am busy doing stuff that I actually want to do. Logan has a physical today at 2:45 and what am I doing at 1:10? Typing up this blog in my pjs and well as Logan still in his pjs, eating and watching Mickey's Clubhouse. A change from Angry Birds.

It is okay that I have been blogging for 2 years and its not where I want it to be or that I have as much followers as I want. I am still new to all this. Even though its been two years or more. I think more. It's okay. I may get there someday. (doubt it)

Its okay that I am having a down day. All this rain and my plants dying has put me in a funk. I need to figure out how to get out of it. 

Macro Monday 6-9-14

The following pictures were taken on our recent outing to Petite Jean Mountain. I love taking close ups. 

View others at Macro Monday 2 and 

A Rainy Happy Homemaker Monday

It is the beginning of a new week and hope all my readers had a fabulous weekend. Our weekend was pretty plane and boring due to the fact of the rain, rain and oh, MORE RAIN! I am ready for some sunshine and drying out time. My yard is a swamp and my drive is a mud pit. Its just nasty out there. 

Anyways I am joining up with Diary of A Stay at Home Mom for Happy Homemaker Monday. Feel free to browse and join in as well. As always new followers and sweet comments are welcome. 

As I look outside my window:
Well right now there is not any rain but it gloomy and cloudy. Enough to disgust you. 

Right now I am:
Trying to make amends where they need to be and not hold grudges against others. Life it to short to stay mad all the time or to let that idiotic person get on my last nerves. 

Thinking and pondering:
Trying to come up with creative ways to avoid meltdowns when its time for Logan to give up his IPAD. I have been setting a timer and he can see it and when time is up its "my turn". The first time worked well. He got mad but handed it right to me then ran off to his room to have a fit for 5 minutes then came out to play. The second time he tried to put more time on the timer when I showed him he only had 15 minutes left. Then when it was "my turn" he went into a total tantrum. RIGHT NOW daddy is playing ball with him and working on signing for "ball"

On my bedside table
As always my clipboard for taking notes and my crossword puzzle book

On my t.v. this week:
Since it is the summer its all re-runs so we have no t.v. schedule set up. Every night at 6 we watch an hour of Big Bang Theory and maybe the news. That is the only thing set in stone at the moment. The Walking Dead can not be here soon enough. 

Listening to:
The news is on t.v. and they are saying something about higher milk prices. Tell me about it! We need a cow in our backyard. $4.50 for a gallon of milk. Just ridiculous.

On the menu:
HAHA I do not really plan out our meals. I am not the cook anyways. One thing I know I do want this week is a good pot roast. That will come Thursday, maybe.
Find the recipe that I will be using HERE

On my to do list:
Tons of things!! Mainly this week I want to focus on my blog for once. I want to look into more ways to get it out there and noticed as well as trying to figure out these html codes. I need some more gadgets and stuff. If I can stay concentrated on it this week. I am hoping but I do get distracted easily. 

Happening this week:
Logans ABA therapy starts all over this week. His consultant had everything totally messed up. We are starting fresh and I am so excited to see what new things are going to happen and how it will happen. 

What I am creating:
I think this goes along with on my to do list. Refer to that :-)

My simple pleasure:
I love eating in bed watching t.v. I have not been able to do that in awhile. 

Looking around the house:
Dogs are playing, kid is crying, older kid on the computer and my house is pretty darn clean if I say so myself :-)

From the camera: